Two major figures in the Canadian mining industry were named to the Order of Canada this year. Bert Wasmund was appointed for his numerous contributions to the industry as a metallurgical engineer and Ross Beaty for his business contributions to the mining sector and his philanthropy aimed at preserving the environment.

Wasmund, who has worked at Hatch for more than 50 years, developed technology in 1973 to cool the walls of smelting furnaces using solid copper elements. This significantly improved the productivity, longevity and efficiency of furnaces and was the cornerstone of Hatch’s custom-design furnace business.

In 1989, Wasmund and the Hatch team designed a new electric furnace for platinum smelting that increased production and reduced energy requirements, thereby vastly increasing the number of mines in South Africa.

Wasmund also helped create the technology systems for the sulfur dioxide abatement programs of nickel producers in Sudbury, Ontario, in the 1970s and ‘80s, and he later implemented a strategy to replace outdated blast furnaces with a new smelting process using fluid-bed roasters and electric furnaces that greatly minimized the formation of acid rain. “The mining industry always has to work on protecting the environment, and [acid rain] was a big problem when I came in,” Wasmund told CIM Magazine.

Wasmund has earned many awards and honours for his contributions to the mining industry, including the CIM Falconbridge Innovation Award in 1994 and the CIM Airey Award in 1998. Wasmund was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2006 and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2011.

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All of these accolades may bear Wasmund’s name, but he attributes his success to the “dynamic team of exceptional engineers” at Hatch. “Working with people like that, innovative people, it was easy to make contributions.”

Beaty is currently the chairman of the renewable energy company Alterra Power. Though his work now focuses on clean energy, Beaty got his start in mining. His first company, Equinox Resources, developed three mines in West Africa before he sold it.

In 1994, he started Pan American Silver Corporation, the company for which he is best known and of which he is still chairman. He started and then sold six more companies, all focused on silver or copper mining, until 2008.

“I was as pleased as I was astonished to receive the call,” Beaty told his local newspaper, the Bowen Island Undercurrent. Beaty said he is proud of the work he has accomplished in both the mining and environmental sectors, which he does not believe should be perceived as incompatible.

In addition to leading Alterra, he created the Sitka Foundation, which distributes funds to around 75 environmental groups. He also personally donated $9 million toward wildlife conservation efforts in 2017.

“I have no desire to die with a bunch of money, so I am pleased to support nature because nature supports us,” said Beaty in the same interview.

Beaty has received Ernst and Young’s Natural Resources and Energy Entrepreneur Award, PDAC’s Viola MacMillan Award and the CIM Vale Medal for Meritorious Contribution to Mining, among others.